Cory (Discussion), Laura, Sarah, Shane (hyperlinks) Abstract
Laura
Each of these chapters focused on MI theory and how it can be applied in the classroom. Chapter 7 highlights the importance of designing a learning environment that includes and appeals to all MIs. It provides strategies and ideas for incorporating each of the intelligences, such as creating MI activity centers, which can be permanent, temporary, open-ended, or topic-specific. However they are designed, the goal of the activity centers is to provide students with equal opportunity to exercise each intelligence while engaging in active learning. Chapter 9 introduces the concept of an "MI school" and compares it to a traditional school. In an MI school, students work on traditional subjects in "nontraditional ways" through project-centered instruction, and then extend their learning into the community. An MI school places special focus on all of the 8 intelligences and considers the development of these intelligences to be just as important as the content itself. Chapter 13 provides examples of the ways in which MI theory can be applied to other components of education, such as computer technology, cultural diversity, and career counseling. Finally, Chapter 14 introduces the possibility of a ninth intelligence, existential intelligence. According to Gardner, existential intelligence meets most of the criteria to be its own intelligence, and should therefore be incorporated schools, just like any of the other intelligences.
Synthesis
Sarah
The big takeaways from this chapter that most of the class talked about in their reflections was the idea of four stations, the MI classroom, and the ninth intelligence. A lot of people in this class said that they didn't not see the four stations being useful. There is space issues that would occur do to these and the idea of four separate sections was not going to be useful in a secondary or middle school classroom since the students are not with one teacher all day. Other people in the class took it in a different direction which I think would be helpful for all of us. Some people in this class said that it means we have to support our students' strongest intelligences. It also was interpreted as we, as teachers, need to support all the intelligences all the time. I think if we look at it that way the chapter has a bigger take away for all of us. The other big idea that people talked about was the idea of an MI school. A couple of people said that it was an interesting concept and others even said that it would be their dream job or would have been their dream school as a student. The last thing that everyone mentioned was the idea of a ninth intelligence. A couple of us said that it was controversial and that definitely showed in our responses. It is a discussion starter and it would spark a deep conversation. Some of us said that it doesn't fit with what we are doing in the classroom and others said that it does not fit as another ninth intelligence. Some one else said that it was not only another intelligence but the most important one. The big idea was that this mindset looks at students who are philosophical. Some of us highlighted the fact that because of the separation of church and state and the laws that prevent teachers from talked about religion in school, it would be challenging to teach to this mindset.
The seemingly obvious similarities between all these chapters is the fact that they all talk about multiple intelligences and how to use MI theory in the classroom. Chapter 7 talked a lot about classroom environment and the way that a teacher can set up their classroom. The biggest suggestion that this chapter stated was to break the classroom into four different parts. These parts would allow a teacher to organize the classroom in a way where there was certain areas of the classroom designated to each one of the multiple intelligences. The first area that the chapter talked about was the permanent open-ended activity center. In this area there were suggestions for each intelligence. The next activity center is the temporary topic-specific activity center. This area changes frequently and is geared towards a specific theme or subject. The third area that is in the classroom is the permanent topic-specific activity centers. In this activity center, each center exists year-round and has material and resources that never change. Part of this center is revolving explorations that change with monthly components or weekly topics. The last activity center is the temporary open-ended activity center. This center is supposed to be set up and taken down easily. I am not sure how any of this will impact my classroom. Most of the suggestions that it gave were elementary. I could see having the four activity centers in an elementary school classroom since the students stay with the same teacher and in the same room most of the day. For a middle or high school classroom, I find this to be impossible. Teachers often change rooms during the day and students are in different classrooms all day. If teachers are lucky enough to have one classroom to call home for the day, they are often teaching multiple different subjects under one content area. I also thought that it would be difficult to fit all these things in a classroom. My big question with this is if these are the four sections in the classroom, where is the section where the teacher teaches the content? Chapter 9 gave specifics for what should be inside a MI classroom and even a MI school. The information in this chapter will impact how I teach because I will try to teach in a way that involves all eight intelligences. Chapter 13 talked about how MI can be used in places other than traditional classrooms. I learned that MI can be used in computer technology, cultural diversity and career counseling. Chapter 14 talked about a possible ninth intelligence called existential intelligence.
Cheyenne
These chapters focused on different ways to apply MI, from individual classroom scale to entire school scale. There was also a short chapter on existential intelligence and how to integrate that subtly into different courses.
So I think a lot of the idea that the book suggests for appealing to all sorts of learners are cool, but a lot of them feel like they’re not really things that I would be able to do. For instance, having activity centers doesn’t feel like a plausible idea for me as a secondary level teacher. Sure, this is definitely something that I could see working in an elementary school, where the kids stay primarily with one teacher each day, but in a middle or high school, it doesn’t seem plausible. Another thing concerning activity centers is spacial limitations. Most classrooms do not have room enough to accommodate each of the suggested activity centers. If the way I’m picturing it is correct, then they hardly have room for even one of these. To have classrooms designed in this way isn’t something that can just be adapted. These classrooms need to be planned out with this in mind.
Another thing that I found interesting was the idea of an MI school, and having these become more commonplace. I love the idea of them, but from a real world perspective, the unfortunate reality is that there are not enough people out there that care enough about education to acquire the funding necessary to make these schools the norm in this day in age. Maybe in 30 or so years, once MI becomes more commonly practiced in the class. While these application ideas are something to look forward to in the far future, they are unhelpful to me as a current day teacher. These are likely not things I will be able to do in my classroom. And I realize that this is an extremely negative outlook, but it is also an extremely unfortunate reality that I have to recognize.
The chapters on other ways to apply MI and integrating existential intelligence were far more helpful. They give suggestions on ways to use MI with computers, to recognize the talents and values of other intelligences in other cultures, and give insight into potential career paths for students of different intelligences. The existential chapter discusses how this potential third intelligence is likely not one that can be addressed like the other intelligences, as it can result in a huge amount of controversy (because it would seem as though teachers were trying to bring religion into schools, a violation of church and state). But it does give insight into ways that it can be subtly hinted at, because so much of history is influenced by religion, that integrating it into classes is not a hard task.
Shane
I love reading the MI chapters just because to me they are the most informative and easiest to relate to. All of the reading was fairly short and pretty pleasant this time around. MI continued to hammer home the points of encouraging all types of learners throughout the eight intelligences. We need to make sure that they are being encouraged to grow. My goal as a future teacher as stated in the reading would be to create an environment that is well rounded and structured in my classroom. The reading went on to talk about different types of activities that we can use and where they would be geared depending on the different learners. As a teacher I would want to help my students use their strong intelligence, but like the reading discusses I would want to help them explore the other intelligences as well. We could do this by doing activity centers allowing them to get a feel for different things outside of heir comfort zone. I like the idea of trying to implement a lesson plan where there are all intelligences hit upon, but that contradicts a lot of the stuff in other readings as well as makes it harder on the teacher to convey information. Sometimes the right way happens to be the easiest way. I think as a teacher I will pick a couple different ones and change up the learning environment a little bit. After awhile students will get used to doing something and I think that this will ultimately help them grow into what they need to be. One last important link between not only the readings, but everything we have done so far would be how technology can be a valuable resource. Depending on the atmosphere of a classroom technology can have a fairly decent sized impact. As we have learned there is an app for almost everything so there is going to be something out there that impacts all types of learners in one way or another. This should help teachers formulate plans in the classroom a little easier and account for different individuals. Coming back to multiple intelligences I want to touch upon the topic of the ninth intelligence. They believe existentialism could possibly be the ninth, but I am running out of words to use and this topic could spark a lot of discussion, I just thought it was an interesting piece to get into sometime in the future.
Lydia
All of these chapters talk about the ways teachers can use the Multiple Intelligences to their benefit as well as finding different ways to engage the students. It is important to make a classroom environment that supports some parts of the eight intelligences at all times. Some of these activities can include stations that go along with the eight intelligences. It is also important that you have your class set up so that students can learn in an environment that has all of the eight intelligences. This is important because if students are done their work they can still be learning on their free time in a style of their choice. One things that I thought was an interesting idea was the concept of an MI school where there are school wide themes and teachers base their lessons off of that theme using the multiple intelligences. I also thought that it was interesting that you could put students of different age, grade and skill levels and use it to enforce diversity in the school and let less experienced students learn from others that know the content well. Something that is also important is the use of technology culture and careers in the MI theory. This would be important for me and my class because I could incorporate the MI theory through my diversity lessons as a Social Studies teacher. The last chapter is different from the others in that it argues that there are nine intelligences instead of eight. This last intelligence is called the existential intelligence. This intelligence would be important to have in my classroom because it will help students that are in a more philosophical mindset learn in my class. A way that I could teach this intelligence is to describe how different religions affected different aspects of history. On the other hand this will also affect me because as a teacher I am not allowed to teach about religion because of the laws of separation of church and state. This will be challenging for me because many historical events happen because of certain philosophical and religious beliefs.
Cory
For the most part, the topics of each chapter in this section of reading varied much more than the last. Each chapter offered new topics rather than newer ideas on the same topic. Chapter 6 focused on how the multiple intelligence theory can be used to set up a classroom. The chapter gave 4 different kinds of “stations,” each of which were labeled quadrant 1 through 4. The idea was rather interesting, but it got kind of confusing when it came to the labeling. I found myself constantly looking back, trying to figure out which quadrant it was referring to. Because of this, I don’t think I got out of this chapter what I could have. Chapter was much more interesting and straight forward to me. This chapter mainly talked about what an MI school would look like and some examples of ones that exist today. The main one they talked about was a school in Indianapolis, Indiana, called the Key Learning Community. This sounds like a dream job for me, or would have been the dream high school for me. My favorite part of the school was the “pod” system. This makes school much more relevant and fun for a student. I like how they chose to give the students the choice of what they want to do, allowing them to explore all of the pods to figure out what they really wanted to do with their life. This is something I think every school should do. They could do something similar by making independent studies mandatory, allowing students to fallow what they are passionate about while they are still in high school. Chapter 13 then went on to talk about how MI can be used in other ways, more specifically in technology, cultural diversity, and career counseling. I personally enjoyed reading the part about technology because it broke the stereotype that I once had; I used to think that technology was more for the logical-mathematics people, but it really isn’t. It all depends on the software you use, which can be a very powerful tool when I become a teacher. This 14th chapter explored a possible 9th intelligence: existential intelligence. This is the intelligence that focuses on the big questions in life (such as why are we here?) as well as things such as religion. It was interesting, but may not fit as a 9th intelligence.
Sara
In chapters 7,9,13 and 14 of Multiple Intelligences we take our knowledge of the intelligences and expand them past just classroom lessons. Throughout all four chapters we talk about using the intelligences not just in instruction but throughout the entire school and even into the real world. Chapter seven talks about activity centers and how a teacher can use the intelligences throughout their classrooms. I found this topic interesting, but not very relatable too in a high school setting. While I can appreciate what they say about the activity centers, I cannot see them being used frequently in a high school class. Chapter nine took the intelligences outside of the classroom and discussed how they can be used throughout a school. The idea of an MI based school is really exciting because while I know I will take into account student’s intelligences in my class, I cannot do anything about other teachers. An entire school based around this idea would be very interesting and would benefit the students greatly. Chapter 13 takes it into the real world by introducing three different applications of the intelligences, technology, culture, and career counseling. Technology is so diverse that anyone with any combination of intelligences can find some application helpful. Because of this technology is an excellent tool to use in the classroom because it would benefit all students. Before reading this chapter I had never considered culture when thinking about the intelligences. However after reading about how culture has a lot to do about intelligences it does make sense. There are so many different cultures in the world and so many different life styles, some intelligences are much more important than others in certain cultures. Intelligences are something that stay with us throughout our life, applying them to careers can only benefit someone. Someone’s strongest intelligence is a reflection of their selves so bringing that into a career aspect will only help them. Chapter 14 was very interesting while also confusing. I found this introduction to a new intelligence intriguing because I feel that I can relate to it. It was interesting to read about but it left me with a lot of unanswered questions. I would very interested in reading more about this intelligence. What I really took from reading these chapters was being aware of multiple intelligences in the classroom is important, it is also important to realize that they also go outside of teaching and lesson plans.
Rhi
Something that came up a lot throughout the four chapters was the importance of teachers showing students different learning styles. I think this is important because you can help students develop their own learning styles that could involve the different types. Allowing students to have choices gives them some control in their learning and hopefully keeps them more engaged and active as they begin to understand. Gardner says, “These environments provide a setting for learning that is hands-on, interdisciplinary, based on real-life contexts, and set in an informal atmosphere that promotes free inquiry into novel materials and situations” (p.125). By taking these ideas and giving students examples of how they are used and integrated outside of school, I believe we will be able to make students care more about what they are learning and by providing meaning to what I will be teaching them hopefully they will not question “why” we are learning such information. This is shown throughout the Meaningful Engaged Learning Model that we've recently discussed.
Cultural diversity is something that is very important when teaching on the Multiple Intelligences theory. Career Counseling is another fine example of how easy it is to bring variety in your classroom, by showing students and discussing with students what they want their futures to look like. This could also help get students talking to each other about what they want to do and how they plan to do it. There are many different occupational examples that give light to each intelligence. There are many resources that show what types of jobs go along with the different types of intelligences and discuss why and how, for example, a linguistic learner would be a good writer. The overall theme of these chapters is about providing various teaching styles and techniques that appeal to all the intelligences not only to get in touch with every student's needs, but also to help the students understand all the different types as well.
Dominick
This chapter in the MI book fascinated because of two different ideas that were brought forward in the chapter. The first was about the possibility of forming a school where multiple intelligences can be taught throughout the school. Every different type of intelligence would be taught according to that students strength. Math and logical based students would be grouped together with students of the same strength. This idea also encourages growth/development among younger students too because these students would be grouped together by their strengths, not their ages. The students could truly collaborate with one another and even teach one another. Their strengths would be exploited and the teacher or teachers would truly zone on strengthening these students intelligence in this area. This sounds like a great idea on the surface, but one must take into consideration the balance of the other intelligences. There would have to be a balance made among the other intelligences. Students knowledge in the other areas could not fall to the wayside because if students lose out on pursuing the other intelligences then we may never know their strongest intelligence and they will also be ignorant in those other areas of knowledge. What kind of teachers would we be if we were to allow our students be one-dimensional? As teachers we need to encourage students to pursue the other intelligences as well. It is a beautiful idea of letting students be grouped together based on their strengths in intelligence and I hope it happens, but when it does there must be a formed balance. These students must have a balance in the other areas. The second idea introduced in this chapter that really caught my attention was the concept of there possibly being a ninth intelligence. This intelligence is known as the existential intelligence. In order to properly understand this intelligence I had to remember what the meaning of existential is. According the Oxford Dictionary existential is “a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.” What I great from that definition is philosophy. Philosophy is something that is undervalued by society, but used by everyone everyday. People do not even realize they use, let alone possess this intelligence. People use it in all scenarios of their everyday life. It happens during every trivial and unimportant tasks they do to the most critical and vital tasks they do. In my opinion this is not only another type of multiple intelligence, but one of the most important ones as well. Without philosophy society could not function. Philosophy is relevant and important to everyone everywhere.
Laura
I felt that each of the chapters we read discussed ways to bring MI theory to life in the classroom with some methods being more practical than others.
I found the first part of chapter to 7 to be more helpful than the second part because it outlined general aspects of classroom design and how they affect/relate to MIs. I do think that the activity centers are more conducive to and realistic for an elementary school classroom, mainly because teachers at the high school level teach a variety of different grades and classes a day, which means one classroom set up may work for one group of students but not another. Since I will (most likely) be teaching just one subject, it may be plausible for me to set up my classroom in a way that best suits how MIs are used in the English classroom. This might make my set up more universal for all my different grades and classes and still appeal to a variety of intelligences. For example, I might have a quiet reading center with for students to work and read independently (intrapersonal, linguistic), another space across the classroom for students to collaborate (interpersonal), and another space where they move about freely (kinesthetic). I would then incorporate other elements that appeal to the other MIs throughout the classroom, but maybe not in “activity centers.”
I really liked the different ideas for using MI theory in classroom management, but again, I found many of them to be better suited for elementary grades. However, I thought this chapter provided good insight as to how rules and expectations can be conveyed through all the different intelligences, and this is something that I will attempt even in my high school classroom. This chapter made me consider the possibility that the reason some students have behavioral issues could be because the rules are not conveyed in a way that is easily interpreted through their strongest intelligences.
I was glad that chapter 13 provided examples of how technology can be used as a tool for allowing students to work with and explore MIs. Because I’m not great with technology myself, I’m looking for ways to incorporate it into my curriculum that are meaningful and not too complicated and this chapter provided ideas on how to do that while appealing to all MIs.
Lastly, I enjoyed reading about the possible “existential intelligence” because I think it is found in a lot of literature, so I can easily incorporate it into my curriculum!
Katelin
Chapter 7 I think was one of my favorite of the four chapters because it really gave insight to what you should do in your classroom, and that you really need to go through the questions in each intelligence to see if you're setting your classroom up to mold as many people as you can. It is as simple as changing up the seats frequently to do group work, or having posters on the wall for the linguistic students, or having a pet in the classroom for the naturalist. Every student will feel more comfortable just by a little nudge to help them learn in the classroom toward their intelligences. The students are "thirsty" for activities that are not individual handouts or worksheets. It is our jobs to change that and create a better learning environment.
Chapter 9 was my dream come true! If we were able to create our own school they way we want, we would have an MI school to help all the children. In a perfect world, this would be possible. In reality, we need to really show administration what we want to do and what needs to be done to help our students. Especially being in Secondary Education though, we need to show these kids that they can be something in life, and we need to help them get there. By having people come in to talk about what they do as careers, these kids will be able to see what they can do too, and that it is not impossible. This is a huge goal I have as a teacher because I am a first generation college student, so it is important to help other students know that they can do it too.
Chapters 13 and 14 were really about cultural differences and existential intelligence in the classroom. We want to make a welcoming environment for every single student to feel comfortable, and we also want to show them the existential world, but we can not really go into religion. In math, the existential world is pretty much in the curriculum already by teaching the concept of infinity, negative numbers, irrational numbers, imaginary numbers, those types of things.
Cooper
One of the main themes of these chapters was how we address a broad spectrum of students outside of our lesson plans. Chapter 7 talks about how to set up a classroom for multiple intelligences, specifically it talks about breaking the classroom up into four stations. Each station would serve as a designated place for a particular type of learning. For several reasons I find this to be impractical, chiefly among these reasons is space. Many teachers don’t teach in the same classroom all day which makes these stations obsolete, in addition to this even if you had your own classroom I find it hard to believe each of these stations could be incorporated without interfering with the traditional classroom setup. Chapter 9 broadens the concept of an MI classroom to incorporate an MI school. This I find to be conceptually far more achievable, making schools accessible to students of a broad spectrum of interests and intelligences would make students excited for school. Incorporating ways for students of all intelligences to interact with each other and the school itself I believe opens the door to far more creativity and passion for classrooms to tap into throughout the school. Chapter 13 talks about how to incorporate MI theory in technology, cultural diversity, career counseling, I found this interesting because we could look at MI theory beyond the lens that we have been using it for. Technology’s influence is ubiquitous in our lives almost everyone owns a computer or a cell phone and spends a significant time behind that screen. This is why it’s important we tap into that, Dr. Theresa had us work on an assignment where we found 5 apps that had to do with a passion of ours and present the apps. This kind of assignment shows how we can get students to interact with their intelligences of strength all through the same means. The last chapter talks about a potential 9th intelligence having to do with existentialism. This concept tip toes the line between church and state as much of it could be attributed to a “religious intelligence” but it could also include a “philosophical intelligence”. I think primarily it encourages big-thinking for lack of a better term, students who think in terms of morality and ethics or who like to reflect or ponder over information may be inclined to use this type of intelligence.
Team Blog
Cory (Discussion), Laura, Sarah, Shane (hyperlinks)Abstract
Laura
Each of these chapters focused on MI theory and how it can be applied in the classroom. Chapter 7 highlights the importance of designing a learning environment that includes and appeals to all MIs. It provides strategies and ideas for incorporating each of the intelligences, such as creating MI activity centers, which can be permanent, temporary, open-ended, or topic-specific. However they are designed, the goal of the activity centers is to provide students with equal opportunity to exercise each intelligence while engaging in active learning. Chapter 9 introduces the concept of an "MI school" and compares it to a traditional school. In an MI school, students work on traditional subjects in "nontraditional ways" through project-centered instruction, and then extend their learning into the community. An MI school places special focus on all of the 8 intelligences and considers the development of these intelligences to be just as important as the content itself. Chapter 13 provides examples of the ways in which MI theory can be applied to other components of education, such as computer technology, cultural diversity, and career counseling. Finally, Chapter 14 introduces the possibility of a ninth intelligence, existential intelligence. According to Gardner, existential intelligence meets most of the criteria to be its own intelligence, and should therefore be incorporated schools, just like any of the other intelligences.
Synthesis
Sarah
The big takeaways from this chapter that most of the class talked about in their reflections was the idea of four stations, the MI classroom, and the ninth intelligence. A lot of people in this class said that they didn't not see the four stations being useful. There is space issues that would occur do to these and the idea of four separate sections was not going to be useful in a secondary or middle school classroom since the students are not with one teacher all day. Other people in the class took it in a different direction which I think would be helpful for all of us. Some people in this class said that it means we have to support our students' strongest intelligences. It also was interpreted as we, as teachers, need to support all the intelligences all the time. I think if we look at it that way the chapter has a bigger take away for all of us. The other big idea that people talked about was the idea of an MI school. A couple of people said that it was an interesting concept and others even said that it would be their dream job or would have been their dream school as a student. The last thing that everyone mentioned was the idea of a ninth intelligence. A couple of us said that it was controversial and that definitely showed in our responses. It is a discussion starter and it would spark a deep conversation. Some of us said that it doesn't fit with what we are doing in the classroom and others said that it does not fit as another ninth intelligence. Some one else said that it was not only another intelligence but the most important one. The big idea was that this mindset looks at students who are philosophical. Some of us highlighted the fact that because of the separation of church and state and the laws that prevent teachers from talked about religion in school, it would be challenging to teach to this mindset.
Table of Contents
Sarah
The seemingly obvious similarities between all these chapters is the fact that they all talk about multiple intelligences and how to use MI theory in the classroom. Chapter 7 talked a lot about classroom environment and the way that a teacher can set up their classroom. The biggest suggestion that this chapter stated was to break the classroom into four different parts. These parts would allow a teacher to organize the classroom in a way where there was certain areas of the classroom designated to each one of the multiple intelligences. The first area that the chapter talked about was the permanent open-ended activity center. In this area there were suggestions for each intelligence. The next activity center is the temporary topic-specific activity center. This area changes frequently and is geared towards a specific theme or subject. The third area that is in the classroom is the permanent topic-specific activity centers. In this activity center, each center exists year-round and has material and resources that never change. Part of this center is revolving explorations that change with monthly components or weekly topics. The last activity center is the temporary open-ended activity center. This center is supposed to be set up and taken down easily. I am not sure how any of this will impact my classroom. Most of the suggestions that it gave were elementary. I could see having the four activity centers in an elementary school classroom since the students stay with the same teacher and in the same room most of the day. For a middle or high school classroom, I find this to be impossible. Teachers often change rooms during the day and students are in different classrooms all day. If teachers are lucky enough to have one classroom to call home for the day, they are often teaching multiple different subjects under one content area. I also thought that it would be difficult to fit all these things in a classroom. My big question with this is if these are the four sections in the classroom, where is the section where the teacher teaches the content? Chapter 9 gave specifics for what should be inside a MI classroom and even a MI school. The information in this chapter will impact how I teach because I will try to teach in a way that involves all eight intelligences. Chapter 13 talked about how MI can be used in places other than traditional classrooms. I learned that MI can be used in computer technology, cultural diversity and career counseling. Chapter 14 talked about a possible ninth intelligence called existential intelligence.Cheyenne
These chapters focused on different ways to apply MI, from individual classroom scale to entire school scale. There was also a short chapter on existential intelligence and how to integrate that subtly into different courses.So I think a lot of the idea that the book suggests for appealing to all sorts of learners are cool, but a lot of them feel like they’re not really things that I would be able to do. For instance, having activity centers doesn’t feel like a plausible idea for me as a secondary level teacher. Sure, this is definitely something that I could see working in an elementary school, where the kids stay primarily with one teacher each day, but in a middle or high school, it doesn’t seem plausible. Another thing concerning activity centers is spacial limitations. Most classrooms do not have room enough to accommodate each of the suggested activity centers. If the way I’m picturing it is correct, then they hardly have room for even one of these. To have classrooms designed in this way isn’t something that can just be adapted. These classrooms need to be planned out with this in mind.
Another thing that I found interesting was the idea of an MI school, and having these become more commonplace. I love the idea of them, but from a real world perspective, the unfortunate reality is that there are not enough people out there that care enough about education to acquire the funding necessary to make these schools the norm in this day in age. Maybe in 30 or so years, once MI becomes more commonly practiced in the class. While these application ideas are something to look forward to in the far future, they are unhelpful to me as a current day teacher. These are likely not things I will be able to do in my classroom. And I realize that this is an extremely negative outlook, but it is also an extremely unfortunate reality that I have to recognize.
The chapters on other ways to apply MI and integrating existential intelligence were far more helpful. They give suggestions on ways to use MI with computers, to recognize the talents and values of other intelligences in other cultures, and give insight into potential career paths for students of different intelligences. The existential chapter discusses how this potential third intelligence is likely not one that can be addressed like the other intelligences, as it can result in a huge amount of controversy (because it would seem as though teachers were trying to bring religion into schools, a violation of church and state). But it does give insight into ways that it can be subtly hinted at, because so much of history is influenced by religion, that integrating it into classes is not a hard task.
Shane
I love reading the MI chapters just because to me they are the most informative and easiest to relate to. All of the reading was fairly short and pretty pleasant this time around. MI continued to hammer home the points of encouraging all types of learners throughout the eight intelligences. We need to make sure that they are being encouraged to grow. My goal as a future teacher as stated in the reading would be to create an environment that is well rounded and structured in my classroom. The reading went on to talk about different types of activities that we can use and where they would be geared depending on the different learners. As a teacher I would want to help my students use their strong intelligence, but like the reading discusses I would want to help them explore the other intelligences as well. We could do this by doing activity centers allowing them to get a feel for different things outside of heir comfort zone. I like the idea of trying to implement a lesson plan where there are all intelligences hit upon, but that contradicts a lot of the stuff in other readings as well as makes it harder on the teacher to convey information. Sometimes the right way happens to be the easiest way. I think as a teacher I will pick a couple different ones and change up the learning environment a little bit. After awhile students will get used to doing something and I think that this will ultimately help them grow into what they need to be. One last important link between not only the readings, but everything we have done so far would be how technology can be a valuable resource. Depending on the atmosphere of a classroom technology can have a fairly decent sized impact. As we have learned there is an app for almost everything so there is going to be something out there that impacts all types of learners in one way or another. This should help teachers formulate plans in the classroom a little easier and account for different individuals. Coming back to multiple intelligences I want to touch upon the topic of the ninth intelligence. They believe existentialism could possibly be the ninth, but I am running out of words to use and this topic could spark a lot of discussion, I just thought it was an interesting piece to get into sometime in the future.Lydia
All of these chapters talk about the ways teachers can use the Multiple Intelligences to their benefit as well as finding different ways to engage the students. It is important to make a classroom environment that supports some parts of the eight intelligences at all times. Some of these activities can include stations that go along with the eight intelligences. It is also important that you have your class set up so that students can learn in an environment that has all of the eight intelligences. This is important because if students are done their work they can still be learning on their free time in a style of their choice.
One things that I thought was an interesting idea was the concept of an MI school where there are school wide themes and teachers base their lessons off of that theme using the multiple intelligences. I also thought that it was interesting that you could put students of different age, grade and skill levels and use it to enforce diversity in the school and let less experienced students learn from others that know the content well. Something that is also important is the use of technology culture and careers in the MI theory. This would be important for me and my class because I could incorporate the MI theory through my diversity lessons as a Social Studies teacher.
The last chapter is different from the others in that it argues that there are nine intelligences instead of eight. This last intelligence is called the existential intelligence. This intelligence would be important to have in my classroom because it will help students that are in a more philosophical mindset learn in my class. A way that I could teach this intelligence is to describe how different religions affected different aspects of history. On the other hand this will also affect me because as a teacher I am not allowed to teach about religion because of the laws of separation of church and state. This will be challenging for me because many historical events happen because of certain philosophical and religious beliefs.
Cory
For the most part, the topics of each chapter in this section of reading varied much more than the last. Each chapter offered new topics rather than newer ideas on the same topic. Chapter 6 focused on how the multiple intelligence theory can be used to set up a classroom. The chapter gave 4 different kinds of “stations,” each of which were labeled quadrant 1 through 4. The idea was rather interesting, but it got kind of confusing when it came to the labeling. I found myself constantly looking back, trying to figure out which quadrant it was referring to. Because of this, I don’t think I got out of this chapter what I could have. Chapter was much more interesting and straight forward to me. This chapter mainly talked about what an MI school would look like and some examples of ones that exist today. The main one they talked about was a school in Indianapolis, Indiana, called the Key Learning Community. This sounds like a dream job for me, or would have been the dream high school for me. My favorite part of the school was the “pod” system. This makes school much more relevant and fun for a student. I like how they chose to give the students the choice of what they want to do, allowing them to explore all of the pods to figure out what they really wanted to do with their life. This is something I think every school should do. They could do something similar by making independent studies mandatory, allowing students to fallow what they are passionate about while they are still in high school. Chapter 13 then went on to talk about how MI can be used in other ways, more specifically in technology, cultural diversity, and career counseling. I personally enjoyed reading the part about technology because it broke the stereotype that I once had; I used to think that technology was more for the logical-mathematics people, but it really isn’t. It all depends on the software you use, which can be a very powerful tool when I become a teacher. This 14th chapter explored a possible 9th intelligence: existential intelligence. This is the intelligence that focuses on the big questions in life (such as why are we here?) as well as things such as religion. It was interesting, but may not fit as a 9th intelligence.Sara
In chapters 7,9,13 and 14 of Multiple Intelligences we take our knowledge of the intelligences and expand them past just classroom lessons. Throughout all four chapters we talk about using the intelligences not just in instruction but throughout the entire school and even into the real world. Chapter seven talks about activity centers and how a teacher can use the intelligences throughout their classrooms. I found this topic interesting, but not very relatable too in a high school setting. While I can appreciate what they say about the activity centers, I cannot see them being used frequently in a high school class. Chapter nine took the intelligences outside of the classroom and discussed how they can be used throughout a school. The idea of an MI based school is really exciting because while I know I will take into account student’s intelligences in my class, I cannot do anything about other teachers. An entire school based around this idea would be very interesting and would benefit the students greatly. Chapter 13 takes it into the real world by introducing three different applications of the intelligences, technology, culture, and career counseling. Technology is so diverse that anyone with any combination of intelligences can find some application helpful. Because of this technology is an excellent tool to use in the classroom because it would benefit all students. Before reading this chapter I had never considered culture when thinking about the intelligences. However after reading about how culture has a lot to do about intelligences it does make sense. There are so many different cultures in the world and so many different life styles, some intelligences are much more important than others in certain cultures. Intelligences are something that stay with us throughout our life, applying them to careers can only benefit someone. Someone’s strongest intelligence is a reflection of their selves so bringing that into a career aspect will only help them. Chapter 14 was very interesting while also confusing. I found this introduction to a new intelligence intriguing because I feel that I can relate to it. It was interesting to read about but it left me with a lot of unanswered questions. I would very interested in reading more about this intelligence. What I really took from reading these chapters was being aware of multiple intelligences in the classroom is important, it is also important to realize that they also go outside of teaching and lesson plans.Rhi
Something that came up a lot throughout the four chapters was the importance of teachers showing students different learning styles. I think this is important because you can help students develop their own learning styles that could involve the different types. Allowing students to have choices gives them some control in their learning and hopefully keeps them more engaged and active as they begin to understand. Gardner says, “These environments provide a setting for learning that is hands-on, interdisciplinary, based on real-life contexts, and set in an informal atmosphere that promotes free inquiry into novel materials and situations” (p.125). By taking these ideas and giving students examples of how they are used and integrated outside of school, I believe we will be able to make students care more about what they are learning and by providing meaning to what I will be teaching them hopefully they will not question “why” we are learning such information. This is shown throughout the Meaningful Engaged Learning Model that we've recently discussed.Cultural diversity is something that is very important when teaching on the Multiple Intelligences theory. Career Counseling is another fine example of how easy it is to bring variety in your classroom, by showing students and discussing with students what they want their futures to look like. This could also help get students talking to each other about what they want to do and how they plan to do it. There are many different occupational examples that give light to each intelligence. There are many resources that show what types of jobs go along with the different types of intelligences and discuss why and how, for example, a linguistic learner would be a good writer. The overall theme of these chapters is about providing various teaching styles and techniques that appeal to all the intelligences not only to get in touch with every student's needs, but also to help the students understand all the different types as well.
Dominick
This chapter in the MI book fascinated because of two different ideas that were brought forward in the chapter. The first was about the possibility of forming a school where multiple intelligences can be taught throughout the school. Every different type of intelligence would be taught according to that students strength. Math and logical based students would be grouped together with students of the same strength. This idea also encourages growth/development among younger students too because these students would be grouped together by their strengths, not their ages. The students could truly collaborate with one another and even teach one another. Their strengths would be exploited and the teacher or teachers would truly zone on strengthening these students intelligence in this area. This sounds like a great idea on the surface, but one must take into consideration the balance of the other intelligences. There would have to be a balance made among the other intelligences. Students knowledge in the other areas could not fall to the wayside because if students lose out on pursuing the other intelligences then we may never know their strongest intelligence and they will also be ignorant in those other areas of knowledge. What kind of teachers would we be if we were to allow our students be one-dimensional? As teachers we need to encourage students to pursue the other intelligences as well. It is a beautiful idea of letting students be grouped together based on their strengths in intelligence and I hope it happens, but when it does there must be a formed balance. These students must have a balance in the other areas. The second idea introduced in this chapter that really caught my attention was the concept of there possibly being a ninth intelligence. This intelligence is known as the existential intelligence. In order to properly understand this intelligence I had to remember what the meaning of existential is. According the Oxford Dictionary existential is “a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.” What I great from that definition is philosophy. Philosophy is something that is undervalued by society, but used by everyone everyday. People do not even realize they use, let alone possess this intelligence. People use it in all scenarios of their everyday life. It happens during every trivial and unimportant tasks they do to the most critical and vital tasks they do. In my opinion this is not only another type of multiple intelligence, but one of the most important ones as well. Without philosophy society could not function. Philosophy is relevant and important to everyone everywhere.
Laura
I felt that each of the chapters we read discussed ways to bring MI theory to life in the classroom with some methods being more practical than others.
I found the first part of chapter to 7 to be more helpful than the second part because it outlined general aspects of classroom design and how they affect/relate to MIs. I do think that the activity centers are more conducive to and realistic for an elementary school classroom, mainly because teachers at the high school level teach a variety of different grades and classes a day, which means one classroom set up may work for one group of students but not another. Since I will (most likely) be teaching just one subject, it may be plausible for me to set up my classroom in a way that best suits how MIs are used in the English classroom. This might make my set up more universal for all my different grades and classes and still appeal to a variety of intelligences. For example, I might have a quiet reading center with for students to work and read independently (intrapersonal, linguistic), another space across the classroom for students to collaborate (interpersonal), and another space where they move about freely (kinesthetic). I would then incorporate other elements that appeal to the other MIs throughout the classroom, but maybe not in “activity centers.”
I really liked the different ideas for using MI theory in classroom management, but again, I found many of them to be better suited for elementary grades. However, I thought this chapter provided good insight as to how rules and expectations can be conveyed through all the different intelligences, and this is something that I will attempt even in my high school classroom. This chapter made me consider the possibility that the reason some students have behavioral issues could be because the rules are not conveyed in a way that is easily interpreted through their strongest intelligences.
I was glad that chapter 13 provided examples of how technology can be used as a tool for allowing students to work with and explore MIs. Because I’m not great with technology myself, I’m looking for ways to incorporate it into my curriculum that are meaningful and not too complicated and this chapter provided ideas on how to do that while appealing to all MIs.
Lastly, I enjoyed reading about the possible “existential intelligence” because I think it is found in a lot of literature, so I can easily incorporate it into my curriculum!
Katelin
Chapter 7 I think was one of my favorite of the four chapters because it really gave insight to what you should do in your classroom, and that you really need to go through the questions in each intelligence to see if you're setting your classroom up to mold as many people as you can. It is as simple as changing up the seats frequently to do group work, or having posters on the wall for the linguistic students, or having a pet in the classroom for the naturalist. Every student will feel more comfortable just by a little nudge to help them learn in the classroom toward their intelligences. The students are "thirsty" for activities that are not individual handouts or worksheets. It is our jobs to change that and create a better learning environment.Chapter 9 was my dream come true! If we were able to create our own school they way we want, we would have an MI school to help all the children. In a perfect world, this would be possible. In reality, we need to really show administration what we want to do and what needs to be done to help our students. Especially being in Secondary Education though, we need to show these kids that they can be something in life, and we need to help them get there. By having people come in to talk about what they do as careers, these kids will be able to see what they can do too, and that it is not impossible. This is a huge goal I have as a teacher because I am a first generation college student, so it is important to help other students know that they can do it too.
Chapters 13 and 14 were really about cultural differences and existential intelligence in the classroom. We want to make a welcoming environment for every single student to feel comfortable, and we also want to show them the existential world, but we can not really go into religion. In math, the existential world is pretty much in the curriculum already by teaching the concept of infinity, negative numbers, irrational numbers, imaginary numbers, those types of things.
Cooper
One of the main themes of these chapters was how we address a broad spectrum of students outside of our lesson plans. Chapter 7 talks about how to set up a classroom for multiple intelligences, specifically it talks about breaking the classroom up into four stations. Each station would serve as a designated place for a particular type of learning. For several reasons I find this to be impractical, chiefly among these reasons is space. Many teachers don’t teach in the same classroom all day which makes these stations obsolete, in addition to this even if you had your own classroom I find it hard to believe each of these stations could be incorporated without interfering with the traditional classroom setup. Chapter 9 broadens the concept of an MI classroom to incorporate an MI school. This I find to be conceptually far more achievable, making schools accessible to students of a broad spectrum of interests and intelligences would make students excited for school. Incorporating ways for students of all intelligences to interact with each other and the school itself I believe opens the door to far more creativity and passion for classrooms to tap into throughout the school. Chapter 13 talks about how to incorporate MI theory in technology, cultural diversity, career counseling, I found this interesting because we could look at MI theory beyond the lens that we have been using it for. Technology’s influence is ubiquitous in our lives almost everyone owns a computer or a cell phone and spends a significant time behind that screen. This is why it’s important we tap into that, Dr. Theresa had us work on an assignment where we found 5 apps that had to do with a passion of ours and present the apps. This kind of assignment shows how we can get students to interact with their intelligences of strength all through the same means. The last chapter talks about a potential 9th intelligence having to do with existentialism. This concept tip toes the line between church and state as much of it could be attributed to a “religious intelligence” but it could also include a “philosophical intelligence”. I think primarily it encourages big-thinking for lack of a better term, students who think in terms of morality and ethics or who like to reflect or ponder over information may be inclined to use this type of intelligence.